Dare to dream.

I like the person that I am,
but I'm in love with the person
I have the potential to be....

For those of you who don’t know, perhaps some of you blog followers I know from Longwood that call another part of the state/country home, Henrico County High Schools all have a different focus area that makes each unique. There are 11 high schools that have different Specialty Centers which range from Arts, Communications, Engineering, Humanities, World Languages, and much more. I chose to apply and go to the Center for Communications, which happened to be at my home high school. I knew I wanted to go to my home high school no matter what, because I wanted to go to school only about 20 minutes away from my house, whereas in middle school, I rode 2 buses to the opposite end of the county which resulted in an hour and a half bus ride (one-way!)

Being in the Communications Center gave me a whole awesome family. I was with the same 30ish people every day, almost allllll day! We laughed, we cried, we fought, we stressed, just like any close-knit group would do. But no matter what, we all understood each other and we were there to help. Always. Besides all of the newspaper articles written and Roll Tape episodes film, one really exciting “Communications moment” to look forward to was the Senior Dinner. A few weeks before graduation, all of the Communications seniors and their parents were invited to a dinner banquet at a local hotel to celebrate all we had accomplished over the past 4 years. Each student was given a different award for something they excelled in or improved on over the years. We also watched “The Senior Video.” This not only included all of our 2 minute senior speeches, but funny clips and memories of everyone from over the years. At the end of the dinner we were given gift bags consisting of our award, a copy of the senior video, as well as a card from all of the Communications teachers, including those who had retired or accepted a new job. (And yes, I did stop writing to go find my copy of this video to watch while I continue to write!....and I may or may not have teared up a little!)

After being inspired by my sister’s bran spanking new clean and organized closet, I decided to go through a few things in my closet. In one of the plastic shoe boxes with random momentos I’ve kept, and I keep a LOT, I found the card from all of the Communications teachers. From being reminded of how every year I always had a screwed-up schedule or how I always smile, one note stuck out the most to me, and I think I read it at just the perfect time. It said, “Don’t let your dreams be dreams.”

…

I took mom lunch at work last Friday, and ended up staying at the library for a couple hours, helping her re-shelve some things and also just looking around. I was so surprised because I never knew school libraries had non-education related books. I know that sounds silly, but I honestly only thought that school libraries had reference books for writing papers, textbooks, biographies, etc. I could not believe that there was an entire COOKING section, for instance. And then these new comic-book style chapter books? I forget what they were called. I came across the Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas book because it’s Christmas (that’s all the reason I needed). Then, Mom showed me where the Career books were and that I might like looking through them. I found a couple of those and then just sat in her office reading through them. Reading through those career books made me realize I have noooo clue what I want to be or what I want to do. There are too many options (some with too much school!). And there are some things that I’d love to do, but I am not up for 12 more years of school. No way. Not now. I just have to find something that fits me well and I’ll actually enjoy doing.

But, I’ll just have to remember the quote I got at the end of my senior year: Don’t let your dreams be dreams.”